According to data from developer community DOU.UA, the number of employees at the 25 largest Ukrainian IT-service companies increased by a total of 843 from August 2014 through January 2015. This is one and a half times less than the previous period (January through August 2014).
As for why growth has been limited, 50% of businesses surveyed cited political instability, 30% listed on overheated labor market, and 20% indicated that deterioration of the business climate was a factor.
Among IT companies, five stand out in terms of total number of people employed. Luxoft leads the way in Ukraine with 3,722 specialists employed, while SoftServe employs 3,570 and EPAM Systems employs 3,550. GlobalLogic comes in fourth with 2,439 employees and Ciklum holds the fifth spot with 2,213.
Over the past six months, GlobalLogic has overtaken Ciklum in terms of number of people employed. The total number of people employed by Ciklum has decreased by almost 200, which is connected to the planned completion of a project with Playtech. At the same time, EPAM and Luxoft increased the size of their staff by 250 and 212 people, respectively.
Last year, in its annual ranking of the world’s best outsourcing service providers, the International Association of Outsourcing (IAOP) had included three Ukrainian companies among the “Top 5 Rising Stars:” Intetics, Miratech and Softengi, which occupied the 3rd, 4th, and 5th spots, respectively.
Ukrainian freelancers lead the Eastern European market
Meanwhile, according to another report from IT recruitment service top$dev, Ukraine has kept its leader status among Eastern European countries in terms of the number of freelance IT developers, with Ukrainian freelancers completing one-third of orders coming to the region in 2014. Second and third place in terms of the share of orders completed are Russia and Romania, respectively.
The share of orders completed by Russian freelancers this year decreased by 15%, while the share completed by Ukrainians decreased by 8%. On the other hand, Romanians completed 32% more orders over the previous period, while Serbians completed 79% more.
In 2014, the highest hourly rate went to developers from Estonia ($27 per hour) and Russia ($26 per hour). Developers in Montenegro saw their rate decrease by almost a quarter, but increased its share in the volume of orders by as much as 150%. Ukrainians earned an average of $21.90 per hour.
Among countries outside the competition include the United States, which boasts 44% of the total volume of orders for Eastern Europe. The shares for developers from Great Britain, Germany, Israel, and Switzerland have also increased significantly.
Leading Eastern European countries for freelance IT services in 2014
Remuneration of IT service freelancers across Eastern Europe in 2014
Countries of order origins for Eastern European freelancers in 2014
Source: top$dev
